


Interlude: 20 Cube

by Gnattygan



Series: Enhypen Universe [2]
Category: ENHYPEN (Band)
Genre: Character development/growth, Cube 20, Enhypen fights a lot :(, Gen, Let Me In MV, engene - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29313048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gnattygan/pseuds/Gnattygan
Summary: After learning the truth of how they became vampires the Enhypen members go in search of the mysterious Engine - a strange lab that may reveal their darkest secrets.
Series: Enhypen Universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2082816
Kudos: 22





	1. Walk the Line

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Co-Engenes! Many of you asked for a continuation of my “Border: Day One” Fic so here is an interlude based on the “Let Me In” MV I hope you all enjoy.
> 
> As a small disclaimer: I do not view any of the Enhypen members like this IRL. I know they all love each other very much. Heeseung in particular is portrayed contrary to who he really is in this first chapter. IRL he willingly gave up leadership to Jungwon and I think that is very honorable. For the sake of the story and based on imagery seen in both MV’s, Heeseung is portrayed as bitter toward Jungwon. This is all part of their characters growth that will be seen throughout this series.

**“Walk under the sun of the first day. Step by step, pain turns into joy.”**

The truck came to an abrupt stop causing Heeseung to lurch forward as those within the trucks bed slid into him. Jungwon leapt out of the truck practically before they came to a complete stop. The sun burned and Heeseung pulled his long coat tighter around him as he huddled under the tarp.

The others were climbing out of the truck and he joined them as they looked up at the tattered silo that stood before them. They stood and looked up at it as if it might be a mirage. Heeseung’s skin was starting to steam and he could see that it was the same for the others. “Well what are we waiting for? I didn’t come this far to blow away in the wind.”

He started moving toward the silo and the others followed. It was familiar he realized. One of those forgotten memories from the time he wanted to forget. They had always followed him. He was the oldest so it was natural. It didn’t matter how many years passed or whether they were human or vampire. They always followed wherever he led them. So it pricked his pride when Jay and Jungwon lingered behind them.

He didn’t remember a time when Jay had been his brother but it got under his skin that his own brother wasn’t quicker to follow. Jay put his hand on Jungwon’s shoulder comfortingly and Jungwon reached up to wipe blood way from his nose. Heeseung frowned. He didn’t think vampires could bleed like that. Weren’t they technically already dead? To be honest he still didn’t really trust Jungwon.

He pushed back the tarp type material that covered the silo to find...nothing. With the exception of far too much sand, the silo was empty. The others pushed in around him, “Well that’s a let down,” Sunoo declared in disappointment.

Heeseung crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Jungwon. “We better not have come all this way for nothing.”

Jungwon didn’t respond as he looked around the room in confusion and disappointment. Jay’s hand was on his shoulder yet again, in that protective way that annoyed him. Sunghoon and Jake had moved further into the Engine and were brushing through the sand with their feet as if hoping that they might find something

“Over here.” Jake had found something under the sand and Sunghoon rushed over to help him unbury it. It was the large handle of what looked to be a trap door. Together they pulled the door open and they all crowded around the square hole in the ground. “Well who wants to go first?” Jake asked as he looked around.

Heeseung stepped forward and leapt into the hole before anyone could stop him. Sunghoon leapt in behind him. There was a stack of boxes conveniently placed beneath them and they climbed down quickly. Maybe it was the immortality in his veins or maybe he felt like he had something to prove, but he didn’t fear what they might find.

It seemed that the Engine stretched for miles. Shelves filled the underground room for as far as they could see. Like a giant archive. “How are we supposed to find anything in here?” Niki spoke up from the back.

“The same way we’ve found anything.” Jay looked down at Jungwon as if it was directly him that he was trying to convince. “Jungwon got us here cause he never stopped searching. We have an eternity to search this place. And this time we’re seven.”

Heeseung rolled his eyes and stepped into the room, crossing to one of the shelves and pulling a book off the shelf. He leaned against the shelf and began flipping through the pages. The others dispersed through the room.

Heeseung allowed himself to get lost in the book. He could hear the voices of the others bouncing around the shelves but he didn’t want to think about them. He didn’t know why it all grated on him so much. Yesterday he had been lounging around the Island, he had been in control.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small bag of pills. Fifty years had passed since he had found the little bag with the elegantly written note from that ancient version of him that had been lost: _In case you ever need them again._ When he had first read it he had been sure he would never reach that place again. The Island had numbed whatever pain had caused him to return to the throne again and again. He had never thought he would need them again, let alone want them.

But that was yesterday. Today everything was different and those words from that version of himself that he couldn’t remember, turned over and over in his mind. “What’s that?” Sunoo’s voice broke him from his thoughts and he stuffed the pills back into his pocket.

“Just something from my past.” He looked up at the younger boy and frowned. “What happened to you?” He pointed up at the boys cheek. Sunoo reached up to touch the place Heeseung had indicated and flinched when his fingers brushed the fresh cut on his cheek.

He looked curiously at the small spot of blood on his fingers. “I...I don’t know.” Heeseung cocked an eyebrow at him but didn’t push him. Most of the younger boys tended to be a bit wild, he had probably brushed against something while running through the shelves and hadn’t noticed.

“Well be more careful. We don’ know what kind of stuff is in here. The Architect wasn’t exactly known for considering safety in his experiments. Who knows what he left behind in here.”

Sunoo nodded and disappeared into the shelves again. Heeseung lifted his book again but his eyes caught something on the bottom shelf across from him. There was a mirror there, tucked between the boxes and pointing directly toward him. He should have been staring into his own eyes. Should have seen the sadness there, the fear, the confusion. Should have seen the frown that played between his eyes and pulled down at the corners of his mouth. But there was nothing, just the shelf behind him as if he didn’t exist.

[](https://i.postimg.cc/D0QLPMKJ/B9-F452-AB-11-D2-45-E2-A2-F7-11-DED692-C5-CD.jpg)Heeseung slammed the book closed and put it back on the shelf. He hated mirrors. His hand went back to his pocket, letting his fingers drift over the shape of the pills that hid there. Just their presence brought him comfort. Sunoo was in the aisle behind him. He was looking at a vial of blue liquid in his hands curiously. He placed it back on the shelf after a minute.

Heeseung shook his head, as his eyes settled on the boys cut again. The boys curiosity would be the end of him. Perhaps all of them. He kept walking, letting himself get lost in the shelves. For just a second he thought he saw the dim lights flicker red. But perhaps that had just been his imagination. Jay was yelling about something and he sighed. It seemed like his brother was always yelling about something. At least he had been in the last 50 years that he could actually remember. According to Jungwon it was even longer than that. Laughter drifted from between the shelves distracting Heeseung from thoughts of his brother. At least some of them still knew how to have fun.


	2. Given or Taken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Niki’s story is the one that intrigues me the most in the MV’s. Ever since the debut trailer where he’s crawling on the ground in the woods. I use the concept of a caged animal for Niki’s character. Often times animals who are kept on a chain when they are young will not go far as adults even once the chain is removed. I was inspired by this concept when I saw the chain on his leg in the Given-Taken MV. So far I have only hinted at his abuse but will be sure to use appropriate warnings if that changes with future comebacks.

**“Red blood in that crown, red blood flowing down”**

So many shelves! They would be here for days if not years. Maybe even decades. Hadn’t Jungwon spent centuries looking for this place. Niki didn’t like the sound of that at all. Sunghoon was sitting on top of a desk, perusing through some documents that were scattered around him. Jungwon picked up a ball from one of the shelves and tossed it toward Jay who smiled as he caught it. They had all been close like that once.

Niki felt a a pressing on his head as if something was pressing to be remembered. He felt that way every time he saw the thick scars on his ankles as if memories of that dark time he had longed to forget were pressing to be remembered.

He wished he could resist them forever but the minute he had stepped into that house on the hill it had all come back. He remembered coming into that room for the first time with Jungwon, remembered the feeling of the mud hardening on his pants. He remembered how Jay had been playing piano and he had felt for the first time like everything might be okay. He remembered the chains. He didn’t want to remember past that. He would rather feel sick then remember that abuse.

He dropped down onto a wheeled chair and slid across the floor. A smile spread across his face and he pushed the chair down the aisle, lifting his feet when he got enough speed. He felt like he was flying. It was the same feeling he got when he danced. He remembered that too. That feeling when Jay played and he just let his body take over, spinning around the room, letting the music flow through him. Sunoo would join him and sometimes Heeseung and for just a moment nothing else in the world mattered.

But life couldn’t stay in that place forever. He had chosen to forget. He had longed for it more than anyone. His friends had been there, shown him only the beauty of life but he could never escape his abusers. Not until the fire. Sunghoon had saved him. Everyone else had lost everything that day, but he had found a new freedom. As long as he never returned to that house he would never remember.

He had told himself that. In that note he kept tucked in his shoe. He rewrote it ever so often when it got worn but always the same _Don’t return to the village. There’s a reason you wanted to forget._ He never had to wonder what that was. The scars around his ankles were all the answer he needed to know that nothing but pain waited for him.

He felt someone behind him and tilted his head back to see Jake leaning down over him. “Hold on.” Niki grinned and gripped the bottom of the chair as Jake pushed him forward.

“Faster!” A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth as Jake picked up speed. He raised his hands above his head as they raced through the aisles. Free! He felt free. He saw Jay ahead of him and lifted his hand for a high five. Jay smiled as their hands connected. Smiled like he had when he interacted with Jungwon, like he had when Niki used to dance to his piano playing. He hoped that smile would never go away.

Jake pulled him to a stop and he nearly tumbled from the chair. Sunghoon stood in the aisle. He had pulled a blanket off the shelf and swung it around his shoulders. He looked just like he had when he had stepped foot in the Island living room last night. The blanket was similar to that one except this one was black instead of red.

Sunghoon tucked his nose into his elbow peeking at Niki and Jake over his arm just like a classic vampire. Jake laughed and Niki jumped up out of the chair. “You make a good Dracula.” Sunghoon laughed and dropped his arm but Niki noticed that he kept the blanket wrapped around him like a prince’s cape.

“Hey look at this.” Jake was looking at something on the shelf that the blanket had been covering. There was a small monitor that showed Sunghoon wrapped in his blanket standing in the aisle. “Do you think the Architect is watching us?”

“I sure hope so!” Sunghoon quickly remarked. “I hope he sees us and spares us the trouble.”

“If he’s even alive.” Niki couldn’t keep the bitterness from his voice. He’d been thinking it, ever since he had heard Jungwon’s story, ever since his memories had started to return. “It had been 200 years since the fire. Unless the Architect had also become a vampire, there wasn’t much chance of him still being alive. If they were lucky he had left really good research notes.

Well if the rest of them were lucky. They wanted to be human again, but this curse had made him strong. His body was fifteen but he was sure that if he had remained human his body would have never made it to sixteen. The rest felt enslaved by it but he only felt free.

“Are you crazy!?” Jay’s voice from the next aisle over pulled him from his thoughts. He was yelling at someone. “You don’t know-“ But his words were cut short when Jungwon’s voice from the far side of the Engine interrupted everything.

“Hey guys, I think I found something.” They all raced in the direction of Jungwon’s voice. For just a moment, Niki thought he saw a flicker of orange light come from down one of the aisle’s but by the time he looked it was gone and the other’s were waiting.


	3. Let Me in

**“Will you open your window. I’m a wanderer in search of Nemo.”**

Jake was the first to reach Jungwon who was standing in front of a large door. Heeseung pushed toward the front of the group, Sunoo close behind him. “What is it?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t opened it yet.” Jungwon looked nervous. Jake could sense the strange tension between them. He’d always known Heeseung to be a calm and wise leader but since Jungwon had revealed the truth and dragged them all off to find the Engene, he had been on edge.

Heeseung grabbed a flashlight off a nearby shelf and pushed past Jungwon to open the door. Dim blue light shown through pictures on the wall that lit up like little windows. Large terrariums were scattered around the room, each filled with strange plants. They entered the room slowly, not sure what to expect.

  
Sunghoon stood in front of a terrarium, looking at the weird roots that grew in it. He crossed over to him. “What do you make of this?” Sunghoon just shrugged. He’d been like that since he’d woken up. Aloof. Distant. Not willing to hold a conversation or share an opinion. Jake knew the knowledge of the fire would weigh on him but he hated getting pushed out.

“You know we were friends once. You used to rely on me. And well...you were my best friend.”

Sunghoon looked at him startled, “You remember that?”

Jake shook his head and pulled a rumpled piece of paper from his pocket. He held it out to Sunghoon who took it reverently. His eyes widened as they scanned the page. “I wrote this?”

Jake shrugged, “I don’t remember, but the last time I woke up it was in my pocket. There’s no way of knowing when you wrote it. But” Jake sighed, “I’ve clung to those words since I woke up. You said I could rely on you. That you’d always be there when I felt most alone. That we were alike.”

Sunghoon looked down at his hands, those hands that had once destroyed their entire town with a single flame. “I’m sorry I don’t remember writing that. You...all of you are just strangers to me.”

Jake laid his hand over Sunghoon’s. “You’re not the only one who destroyed everything. You may have started the fire but I was one who convinced all of you to take this curse in the first place. You never would have been able to start that fire if it wasn’t for me.”

Jake looked back at the terrarium, letting his hand fall from Sunghoon’s. “The truth is...I don’t think I’ve ever really belonged in this group. I don’t think it’s a new feeling either. I don’t think I would have gone to the Architect if I had felt like I belonged with you guys. But when ever I see you, well I feel like everything’s going to be ok.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say. I don’t remember anything before yesterday. Nothing but weird impressions from a life that isn’t mine.” He turned away from Jake, leaving him alone by the terrarium.

Jake looked around the strange room. The others huddled around the displays. Jay and Sunghoon leaned over a display together. Heeseung placed his hand on Sunoo’s shoulder as he shone his light into another. Even Jungwon and Niki had wandered to the same side of the room. Jake was alone. No one gravitated toward him.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small bag of candy one of Zico’s staff had given him. Rubbery candies shaped like little bears. They had become sticky in the heat. He didn’t know why but he stuck the sticky candy to the glass of the terrarium. It looked lonely there on the glass so he stuck another one next to it. For a moment it felt like the world froze. Like a flicker of a memory.

But it wasn’t a memory because they were all wearing the same clothes as now. But he saw them standing there frozen surrounded by colored wood as if they were on display like these plants. I light shone on them and they were suddenly running, dodging through the green lights. Sunghoon took one of the little red bears and placed it between the green beams and they stopped moving. They all ran. Ran like hell itself was after them.

Just as quickly as it had come, it was gone and Jake was back in that room with the others. The glow of Heeseung’s flashlight shining off the red bears and making the light flicker red. “What are you doing?”

Jake jumped and turned away from the gummi bears on the glass. “Nothing.” He rushed to join the others. Heeseung shown his light down a dark passageway and the others followed him. The light from the flashlight caught on the glass of another display and Jake swallowed. It was the display from the vision he had just seen. Exactly like he had seen it minus the statues of them.

The light from Heeseung’s flashlight fell across a set of handprints on the inside of the glass. Jungwon moved to inspect the glass, placing his hand over the handprint. His fingers and and palm lining up perfectly as if he had left it himself. He pulled his hand away swiftly and shuddered.

“Are you crazy!?” Jay’s voice reverberated through the room. The sound of his voice caused the glass to crack. “You don’t know what’s in that, you can’t just-“

“Be quiet.” Jake didn’t know who Jay was yelling at but if he got any louder the whole glass wall might come down. There was something about that colored wood in the display that drew him. Something familiar. It went beyond the vision he had seen. Perhaps the answers were there in that display.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Gummi Bears in dream symbolism imply that you perseverance will pay off in the end, and the color read represents courage and passion. I don’t know if that’s what Belift was going for but if not, then I have many questions about those gummi bears. Lol! Did you notice in the MV they are also floating in space. Yes I have many questions! 😅


	4. 10 Months

**“All day, all night from tomorrow I will protect you.”**

There was something so terrifyingly familiar about those woods. Something intoxicating. As Jay watched Jake step into the display, there was a part of him that wanted to yell after him not to go, to tell him not go in. It wouldn’t have been the first time he had yelled at Jake, told him not to be stupid about this or that, not to be selfish. Wouldn’t have been the first time he had told him that to think before he acted and to stop acting like he was alone. He’d been repeating those words for 200 years according to Jungwon.

Yelling at Jake had never gotten them anywhere. Jake always ran off. Always secluded himself as if none of them cared if he was there. Acted as if they would be better if they were only six. Jay was tired of yelling. The woods drew them all. His head told him that this forest was fake. The colors that swirled in the wood, an illusion that should have been easy to spot. And yet his heart was easy to convince.

They had been happy here. Once, a long time ago they had lived here. Really lived. Sure there had been houses they had returned to when the sun went down but in these woods they were together, they were free, they were alive, they were human. For 10 beautiful months they were just seven friends who ran away into the woods to be free of everything that weighed them down.

[](https://i.postimg.cc/1XfG7gwV/F0-CBCB0-D-8239-4685-868-B-2-D42285-D62-E8.jpg)The others seemed to feel it too. It was an intoxicating memory that pulled at all of them and seemed to erase 200 years of pain and forgetting. Heeseung picked up a stick and weighed it in his hand, the strain on his brother’s face beginning to fade. This was what Heeseung used to be. Before the curse, his brother had been carefree, a natural leader. Not because he wanted it but because they respected him and looked to him for guidance. He encouraged them and challenged them to be better.

Sunoo picked up another stick, his face melting into a smile. Joy, that’s what Sunoo had once embodied. The curse had stolen that from him. No matter what had weighed them all down, when they came into that house on the hill, Sunoo was there to make them smile. “Play for us Jay. Show me how to make a paper airplane Jungwon. Dance with me Niki.” The words echoed through Jay’s memory. 100 years of not sitting on the throne, made those years a little less foggy. He still couldn’t remember everything but it came easier.

Sunoo swung his stick, Heeseung bringing up his own to meet Sunoo’s. Soon they were swinging their make believe swords and laughing. It had been so long since he had heard such a sound. Then they were all running through those woods, lost in the memories of what they had once been. What they had lost and what they hoped to be again. If they could just break this curse, perhaps they could be this happy again.

Jay didn’t know how long they ran, how long their laughter danced between the trees or when the sky began to turn red. Soon he found himself alone, lost in the peace of those woods. For awhile he walked alone. He saw Jungwon sitting alone in the brush and came to his side. His legs were hanging over the ledge of a perfectly rectangular hole. Was it a grave? He looked down contemplatively as if wondering what might be buried there.

Jay was about to ask him what he was looking at but a strange sound drew his attention. He followed the sound until he found Sunghoon bent over a fallen tree. He was carving something into the wood. Jay came close so that he could see what he was carving. “ _Park Yeji_ ” The name of his sister. Sunghoon carved the final line of his sisters name and sat down on the tree. He turned the pocket knife in his hand looking at as if it was the fire that had burned down the village.

“There’s something none of you know about that day.” Sunghoon didn’t take his eyes off that blade as he spoke. “The real reason I keep choosing to forget. The thing I see every time Heeseung shows me that article.” He looked up at Jay then, holding his gaze with a cold look in his eyes. “That day Yeji learned what I was. The fear in her eyes. She tried to kill me, held me under the water while I took a bath. The same sister that pulled me out of the ice when we were children, tried to drown me.”

Sunghoon looked at the knife again and let it drop into the weeds at his feet. “You see, it was never the fact that I lost control or destroyed everything we knew. It was that the one person I thought would still love me, couldn’t bear to look at me.” He looked up at Jay again. “Does that make me a horrible person?” Sunghoon laughed then. “Well I suppose I’m not a person anymore. I don’t know what I am. But I haven’t been human for a long time.”

Jay stepped back, falling back into the woods. He could hardly process what Sunghoon was saying. He heard shouting, someone was arguing but he just kept running. He fell against a tree...but it wasn’t a tree. He stood up and pressed himself against it. It was a wall and it moved when he put his weight against it. He remembered suddenly that he was in an exhibit. Remembered that these woods weren’t real.

He threw himself against that wall, pounding against it with all his might. Soon the others heard him and they all ran towards it, throwing their weight against it. It took all their effort as they pounded against the false wall. Jake rested against a tree and Jay remembered for a moment one of their fights. Remembered how he had thrown Jake against a tree and how Heeseung had stood between them. As he always did, because Heeseung was like that. Strong and confident and kind. He would help him remember that.

Jay threw his arm around Jake, “Come on, we can do this. Together.” They kept pounding against the wall breaking down the barrier between dream and reality. Their past was a part of them, but it was no longer who they were.

Sunoo was hitting his fist against the wall but Jay suddenly realized he wasn’t putting all his effort into it. He didn’t know why it suddenly aggravated him so. “Let’s go Sunoo, stop being such a wimp.”

“I’m tired.” the fragile boy sat down on the ground beside a small spring that hadn’t been there a moment before and lifted the deep blue water to his lips.

“Are you crazy. You don’t know what’s in that. You can’t just go around drinking strange things.” Suddenly the wall cracked. What ever technology had caused the wall to take on the appearance of a forest, shorted out and the wall went black, the glass shattered and a soft orange pulse of light lit up the darkness beyond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only 2 more chapters left of the Interlude!


	5. Flicker

**“Even if you don’t say anything, only you and I can know the signal connecting the displaced world. That flickering moment”**

The blackness stretched out before them and that strange orange pulse drew them. Sunoo had seen that strange flicker multiple times since they’d entered the Engine. When he’d seen it between the shelves he’d thought he’d been imagining it. And then when those gummi bears flickered he’d thought it just been the light of the flashlight bouncing off it. He’d started to really notice it when the sky in this display had flickered. And now that flickering light pulsed from the darkness.

Jungwon stepped forward. “Let’s go.” As they stepped out of the display a bright light shone down on them and Niki lifted his hand to shield his eyes. Sunoo saw the light bounce off Jungwon’s eyes, that spark of something he couldn’t quite place. It went beyond the curse. There was something that flickered when the light hit his eyes just right. Whatever it was drew them all to follow him. It was what had pulled both Sunoo and Jake to break their pact to have a taste of whatever it was he held.

The bright light filled the room and revealed a bright white room. “What are we wearing?” Sunghoon was looking down at the baggy white uniform he was suddenly wearing. Sunoo realized they were all wearing it. Not only that but the forest they had been in just moments before, had disappeared.

Jake crossed to the large window in front of them. “I don’t think we’re on earth anymore.”

“How is that possible?” Heeseung ran over to the window and saw that what Jake was saying was true.

“There’s something floating out there.” Jake said as he pressed his hand against the glass to get a closer look. “Something’s flickering out there.”

Sunoo moved to get a closer look but before he could move closer, what ever vessel they rode came to an abrupt stop, knocking them into an anti-gravity spin. Sunghoon and Jake bumped into each other, their shoulders colliding as they spun. Heeseung bounced over to the door that had appeared in that place that the forest had once been and threw it open.

“Wait!” Jungwon called out but it was too late. The door was already swung open. “That shouldn’t be possible. We shouldn’t be able to breathe out here.” yet somehow they could and they all stepped out of the vessel and onto the foreign soil.

They stayed closer together this time. Unlike the forest they didn’t go far as they explored the strange planet. Sunoo noticed Jungwon standing over something and moved closer for a better look. Soon all seven of them crowded around the grave-shaped pit. “I saw something like this in that forest.” He shivered and took a step back. The others leaned further over as if trying to see to the bottom of the dark pit.

Sunoo looked up at Jungwon. He was looking up at the sky which was turning red. Like that flicker he kept seeing. “What is that?” Jungwon was still looking up at the sky and Sunoo followed his gaze to see the square hole that seemed to have opened up in that sky.

Sunoo shrugged. “With all the weird things we’ve seen, who knows.”

Jungwon looked at Sunoo curiously, squinting at him as if there was something he wanted to ask but wasn’t sure how to say it or if he even should. Sunoo could almost read the question in his eyes as if he was asking Sunoo _what do you know?_ Truthfully, Sunoo wouldn’t know how to answer such a question. He wasn’t even sure what was happening to him.

Then suddenly Jungwon was pushing off from the planet, floating away into space and toward that mysterious black box in the sky. The others rushed over to Sunoo to watch as Jungwon floated away. Sunoo didn’t know why but he lifted his hand and waved. As if he were merely sending a friend off on a trip.

“Where is he going?” Niki asked, a worried tone in his voice.

Sunoo shrugged, “To wherever that door in the sky leads to.”

“And you just let him.” Sunghoon looked down at the smaller boy in shock.”

Sunoo frowned up at the older boy, “It’s not like he asked permission.” Sunoo crossed his arms over his chest and stuck out his bottom lip in a pout before marching back into their vessel. It only took a moment for his eyes to settle on the thing across the room. It was there again as if it had been following him. Inside a terrarium, in the forest, and now here. That blue liquid that he had first seen displayed on a shelf. Jay was right he shouldn’t drink strange substances. But it seemed drinking it was the only way to trigger the next event, probably the only way to bring Jungwon back.

Sunoo lifted the blue liquid to his lips. Jay grabbed his wrist. The white room faded. He was standing in front of a shelf. “Are you crazy. You don’t know what’s in that. You can’t just go around drinking strange things.” Sunoo held the vial out and let it fall to the ground. For the first time, the glass shattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I knew the Interlude would have to get a bit weird in order to fit in the whole MV. Hopefully it doesn’t turn anyone off too much. 
> 
> Tomorrow is the final chapter of the interlude!


	6. Cross the Line

**“With our last step we dance across this line into a new world”**

For a moment Jay just stood there and stared at Sunoo as the strange blue liquid oozed around his feet. “What the hell did you do that for?” The others were starting to appear from either side of the aisle clearly being drawn by the sound of breaking glass. Jay still held his wrist. It wasn’t the first time that Sunoo had been here. Every time there was a flicker he had found himself back here in the aisle holding that glass. He would always put it back on the shelf while Jay would tell him how crazy he was for drinking the liquid. And then he would find himself back in another vision, in someone else’s mind until he saw that flicker again.

“Are you okay, Sunoo?” Heeseung asked as the rest came closer to them. He pointed toward the cut on Sunoo’s cheek and Sunoo swallowed as he lifted his fingers to his face and felt the sting as his fingers brushed his cheek. 

He looked up toward Heeseung. “You don’t remember.”

Heeseung lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “Should I?”

Sunoo shook his head and looked down at the liquid around his feet. He vividly remembered Heeseung swinging that stick and connecting with his face. They had been playing but Sunoo had thought he had done it on purpose, they had even fought. If that wasn’t real, if that hadn’t happened, if it had only been in his head...then how did he have this cut on his cheek. “No,” Sunoo shook his head again, “I’m just confused. That liquid messed with my head.”

Jungwon stepped forward, placing a calming hand on Heeseung’s arm. “Sunoo do you remember something?”

[](https://i.postimg.cc/HxDZB4sz/8-E7-F5-C7-D-C0-E8-444-C-B7-AB-797207-D7-D945.png)Sunoo looked around at the group again. He wished he could climb into that box on the bottom shelf across from them. Climb inside and hide away from all their prying eyes. If the cut was real, what else might have been real. “I don’t know. Maybe.” He lifted his fingers to his cheek again. If that was real perhaps the other things he had learned was real. Was it possible that Heeseung really was scared of mirrors and what he couldn’t see there? Did Niki really not want to be human again? Was Jake really so lonely that he would turn against them? Did Sunghoon really burn down their entire village because his sister had tried to drown him? He couldn’t possibly be sure if anything he had learned was true. Not unless he asked them directly. But something within him told him it was true. That somehow that liquid had given him a glimpse into the mind’s of his friends.

“Well, what did you see?” Sunghoon asked his eyebrows raising in quiet curiousity.

Sunoo gave him a contemplative look. He felt small with all of them staring at him. Small and fragile. “I drank the blue liquid and got caught in a trance. What I saw doesn’t really matter, it wasn’t real.”

Jungwon looked like he was about to say something when a strange pulse of orange light caught all their attention. Sunoo cried out, “No not again! This light appearing throughout the vision.”

“Well maybe some of it was real.” Sunghoon said, motioning toward the cut on Sunoo’s cheek. “Maybe the liquid was trying to show you something important.”

Sunoo scanned the group. If the light turned out to be real could he trust the others. They all had their own motivations that might conflict with Jungwon’s goal to remove the curse. Even still he followed Sunghoon toward the light, stopping when they came to a strange box underneath a tarp. The strange glow was coming from beneath it. Jay stepped forward and pulled the tarp from the cube. The light stopped and there was a click to the right. They all looked to see a door swing open.

Jungwon stepped forward bravely. They didn’t know what was beyond in this place but he had started them on this search and he would lead them through it. He opened the door to find it mostly empty except for what seemed to be statues covered by tarps. Heeseung stepped forward to examine the statues and paused in front of one. “It can’t be.” He reached up to grab the tarp from one of the statues and pulled it loose. He nearly fell back at the realistic, almost lifelike face. Sunoo gasped as his eyes settled on a perfect replica of Sunghoon. Soon the tarps had been removed from all the statues, revealing replicas of all 7 of them.”But why are these here?” Asked Jake, looking toward Sunoo as if hoping that his vision might give some kind hint as to what they were looking at. Sunoo just shook his head, wishing he could just climb into a box and hide. He noticed Sunghoon pulling something out of the hand of his replica. He opened whatever it was, his eyes scanning the note.

“You guys will want to see this. I think it was left here by the Architect.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this is the end of the Interlude. As a reader I really hate the “It was all a dream” trope so I will do my best in future stories to ground as much of what happened in this interlude into the main story plot. Sunoo now knows a lot of things that the others would probably prefer he didn’t know which should make for a greatly intriguing plot line in the future. I hope you will all continue to check back in when Enhypen has another comeback 😊


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